Rieux's reaction to Rambert's Arab article is important (11-12):
"Would you be allowed to publish an unqualified condemnation of the
present state of things?"
"Unqualified? Well, no, I couldn't go that far. But surely things
aren't quite so bad as that?"
"No," Rieux said quietly. . . "I've no use for statements in which
something is kept back" (Camus 11).

Tarrou's contribution (22).

Stupidity and war (34).

Anything to explain or anticipate the break with Sartre? (35).

Part II

"duped by our blind human faith in the near future" (61).

"after a certain time the living words . . . were drained of any meaning"
(63).

"A never ending defeat" (118).

"Well, personally, I've seen enough of people who die for an idea. I
don't believe in heroism; I know it's easy and I've learned it can be
murderous. What interests me is living and dying for what one loves"
(149).

Part III

"Indeed, to some, Š this precisely was the most disheartening thing: that
the habit of despair is worse than despair itself" (164).

Part IV

"Then why don't you stop my going? You could easily manage it."
Rieux shook his head with his usual deliberateness. It was none of
his business, he said. (183)

"Rambert said he'd thought it over very carefully, and his views hadn't
changed, but if he went away, he would feel ashamed of himself, and that
would embarrass his relations with the woman he loved" (188).

"Finding that the public appetite for this type of literature was still
unsated, they had researches made in the municipal libraries for all the
mental pabulum of the kind available in old chronicles, memoirs, and the
like. And when this source ran dry, they commissioned journalists" (199).

"Indeed, the one thing these prophecies had in common was that,
ultimately, all were reassuring. Unfortunately, though, the plague was
not" (200).

"At these moments he seemed to be vainly struggling to force up from his
lungs a clot of some semi-solid substance that was choking him" (209).

"I must isolate you."
The Father smiled queerly, as if for politeness' sake, but said
nothing. (210)

"Against his name the index card recorded: 'Doubtful case'" (211).

"Thus, whereas plague by its impartial ministrations should have promoted
equality among our townsfolk, it now had the opposite effect and, thanks
to the habitual conflict of cupidities, exacerbated the sense of
injustice rankling in men's hearts" (214).

"And those they love have forgotten them because all their energies are
devoted to making schemes and taking steps to get them out of the camp. .
. . In fact, it comes to this: nobody is capable of really thinking about
anyone, even in the worst calamity" (217).

"what would be better called murder in its most despicable form" (225).

"I learned that I had had an indirect hand in the deaths of thousands of
people; that I'd even brought about their deaths by approving of acts and
principles which could only end that way" (227).

"All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are
victims, and it's up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with
the pestilences" (229).

"Heroism and sanctity don't really appeal to me, I imagine. What
interests me is being a man" (231).

Part V

"But what had he, Rieux, won? No more than the experience of having known
plague and remembering it, of having known friendship and remembering it,
of knowing affection and being destined one day to remember it. So all a
man could win in the conflict between plague and life was knowledge and
memories" (262).

"In short, they denied that we had ever been that hag-ridden populace a
part of which was daily fed into a furnace and went up in oily flames,
while the rest, in shackled impotence, waited their turn" (268).

"They knew now that if there is one thing one can always yearn for and
sometimes attain, it is human love.
But for those others who aspired beyond and above the human individual
toward something they could not even imagine, there had been no answer"
(271).

"This chronicle is drawing to an end, and this seems to be the moment for
Dr. Bernard Rieux to confess that he is the narrator" (271).

"Also he'd made a fresh start with his phrase. 'I've cut out all the
adjectives'" (276).

"Is it a fact they're going to put up a memorial to the people who died
of the plague? . . . And there'll be speeches." He chuckled throatily. "I
can almost hear them saying: 'Our dear departed. . .' And then they'll go
off and have a good snack" (277).

"Dr. Rieux resolved to compile this chronicle, so that he should not be
one of those who held their peace but should bear witness in favor of
those plague-stricken people; so that some memorial of the injustice and
outrage done them might endure; and to state quite simply what we learn
in a time of pestilence; that there are more things to admire in men than
to despise" (278).

"And, indeed, as he listened to the cries of joy rising from the town,
Rieux remembered that such joy is always imperiled" (278).